Wellstone, Paul David, 1944-2002

Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until his death. A member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota, Wellstone was a leader of the progressive wing of the national Democratic Party.

Born in Washington, D.C., Wellstone attended high school in Arlington, Virginia, graduating from Yorktown High School. He then graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. and Ph.D. in political science. Wellstone was a professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and a community organizer in Rice County before entering politics. The trustees of Carleton College briefly fired Wellstone in the late 1970s for his activism and lack of academic publications. After his students held a sit-in, the trustees rehired him and gave him tenure. Wellstone remains the youngest tenured faculty member in Carleton's history. In 1982, he ran an unsuccessful campaign for State Auditor against Republican Arne Carlson.

Wellstone gained national attention after his upset victory over Republican incumbent Rudy Boschwitz in the 1990 US Senate election. Widely considered an underdog and outspent seven to one, he was the only challenger in the country to defeat an incumbent senator in 1990. In his 1996 reelection campaign, he defeated Boschwitz in a rematch. In 1999, Wellstone formed an exploratory committee to run for President of the United States in 2000. After campaigning in the early primary states, he announced he would not seek the presidency because of chronic physical limitations from a college wrestling injury. His condition was later diagnosed as multiple sclerosis.

Wellstone was known for his work for peace, the environment, labor, and health care; he also joined his wife Sheila to support the rights of victims of domestic violence. He made the issue of mental illness a central focus in his career. He was a supporter of immigration to the U.S. He was strongly supported by groups such as Americans for Democratic Action, the AFL-CIO, the Sierra Club, the American Civil Liberties Union, and People for the American Way. He opposed the first Gulf War in 1991 and, in the months before his death, spoke out against the government's threats to go to war with Iraq again. After voting against the congressional authorization for the war in Iraq on October 11, 2002, amidst a tight election, Wellstone is said to have told his wife, "I just cost myself the election."

Eleven days before the election, Wellstone died in a plane crash in Eveleth, Minnesota. His wife, Sheila, and daughter, Marcia, also died on board. He is interred in Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.